Class Meeting

This was the first Sunday in three weeks that we were able to make it to our little country church because of the weather. Nice to have been back but now there is no church on Wednesday evening so that kinda puts a hole in the week that is usually filled. Oh well, can’t have it all the time I guess! On the ministry front there have been developments that have me more than a little excited. For the longest time now I’ve been studying the “methods” that the early Methodists used in spreading and keeping the faith and one of the main things that they did back in the circuit rider era was to have what was called “class meetings”. These were local small meetings of the believers that were hugely successful in keeping and building the faith of the believers.

In this day and age I can truly see the need for this to happen again, and as a way of life while we’re on this side of the River Jordan! A strange thing happens with meetings of this sort, folks are eager to have em. Unlike many church activities where after a while a person is almost trying to hide. In a regular church group, evangelism is almost non-existent. Where as in a home based meeting the opportunities are huge. Folks that are unsaved will walk into a home much easier than a traditional church building.

These next few weeks I’ll be busy, and I like that, busy putting this together. I searched today on the computer and found huge amounts of resources for just this! Glory, this is going to be interesting! Plus I also figure that I’ll have to beef up our ministry site to include this.  Yup, I’m excited, happy and almost ready to jump and shout!

Looking Ahead at Christmas

Its Christmas evening around here and I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal starting tomorrow. I’m so screwed up, I thought it was Sunday today for the longest time! But reality hit home and it ain’t Sunday. The last few days and the last few weeks has been busy in many ways with ministry things. The ground floor has been laid up and it seems things are just falling into place. One thing I must admit, when “church” is outside of the walls of the traditional church building, things get interesting! And instead of the same old thing, it just bursts forth and comes from every angle imaginable! Does this mean I’m finding my calling?? I don’t know, but it sure is interesting. There seem to be no set rules, things just happen!

Now seasoned ministers might laugh me right out, but I sometimes get so excited I’m durn near out of breath as the opportunities develop. The difference is though, these opportunities are not what would be called “normal”. It isn’t something that’s a highly structured “church” event or program, its just do what God wants a person to do anywhere and everywhere. When a person throws out most “traditions” of man and starts doing Book of Acts type of ministry it seems that God just moves, and also takes a feller by both shoulders and steers him the right way. And the strangest part is, like in the Book of Acts, like in the circuit rider era, and like the underground church in today’s China, it takes very little or no money at all to accomplish God’s purpose. It just takes a person that’s willing to get off their butt and do what they’re supposed to do and God will move and that’s a promise.

I have no dream of ever being supported in any of this, because even though things are going well, and will pick up steam more and more as roots are grown in deeper in every direction from here, I realize what we are doing is considered “nice” by most, but not taken seriously at all. I’m getting over that hump, and not worrying about it either. There is not the slightest interest in pleasing man in this and I pray there never will be. Because then a person loses everything. I am not hampered on anything, (yet), and have a free rien to do basically anything I feel God wants us to do. But I know I won’t have much luck in getting anyone to support what we are doing because to tell the truth it can be looked at as a threat to allot of man made tradition.

Ministry expenses are almost nil, some gas here and there is about it at the time. Any materials can be down loaded off the internet for free. I hope to write next year at this time that there are healthy churches, groups of well saved believers, in every direction from home base here on the farm. Believers that were not believers at this year’s Christmas. It will happen! It has already started. There’s just something about a New Year starting, it gives a person some added incentive or something, well anyway it does to me, and this will be the launching of the next stage and it will be interesting and exciting! I wish I could write more here but still hold back a little because of privacy issues. Also another thing I’ve learned, all these things I wrote about the past couple of years, how they were successful in years gone by spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, seem to be falling into place as the “method” to be employed this coming year and probably for the rest of my days here on this old ball called Earth. Not because I like old time things, but because these methods work!  They’re biblical!

Another Sunday At Home

Glory to God, the house is warm! Sometimes little things like that mean allot, especially here in Central Minnesota on the first day of winter! The storm we had yesterday is a memory and the cold wind blowing outside this evening should be a memory tomorrow. And with the storm came the second week in a row with no church services on Sunday for us folks. I didn’t even have time to do anything today that even resembled church in the home but that might change in the next few minutes cause there’s time left.

There’s so much to do coming up after Christmas that I get all excited just dwelling on it! I ain’t even talking church stuff as a person would normally think of, nope, just doing what the Lord wants us to do. Christmas is kinda the hump, a person gets blasted by the first winter blasts and then kinda gets used to it. What we consider rough now will be easy in January, that’s the way it works. And by February and March, well a person is so toughened up it hardly matters what the weather brings. Just get out and do the Lord’s work!

I just kinda kick back here, been doing enough writing on Northern farmer to keep me in trouble, so here I just sit back and josh. Earlier this evening I finally got around to ordering the book “The Autobiography of Peter Cartwright” from CBD. This is the second copy that I ordered, the first copy is so marked up by yours truly when I find an interesting thing that I want to come back to for reference that I figured I couldn’t loan it out. So as of tonight there’s a copy being shipped directly to Alabama that won’t have a mark in it from me! That book sure is a good one and I hope it can make the rounds sooner or later to any and all that want to take a look and have a good read. It is by far one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life because I can so easily connect with the way Peter Cartwright thinks. To tell the truth we think almost exactly the same with about everything! And that’s rare! And when I read his thoughts on all the different things I ask myself, why couldn’t that all just have kept going? An unbridled move of God that was unbelievable to folks living today. They were a different sort back then, those uneducated country preachers that didn’t let the severe lack of education slow them down spreading the Kingdom of God. They went with a zeal, a love for the Lord, just as the disciples did in the Book of Acts! A funny part that I re-read today was the manners of some of these backwoods preachers when faced with a high society social gathering. Imagine eating some chicken and the preacher gets done chewing the meat off the bone and tossing the bare bones on the floor much to the utter disbelief of the high society hostess! Some of the other backwoods preachers were ready to bust a gut laughing but kept a blank look on their faces  so they could enjoy the show! Oh, they don’t make men like that anymore!  And after describing the story Peter C made big mention that the bone tossing circuit rider had  a hand in saving a large amount of souls for the Lord’s Kingdom even though he was a little rough around the edges! …..You know, those are my kinda folks! And I get a funny feeling a large share of the readership on this and the Northern Farmer blog would agree!

So I reckon I’d better get myself cleaned up a bit from the day and do what needs to be done tonight around here as the cold wind continues to blow outside. One more thing, a couple years ago I started reading the Bible regular and I thought, Tom, you ain’t never going to get this thing down pat, never. There’s folks that can rattle off Bible verses on demand and I just stumble through and it seems like absolutely nothing would stick, nothing. But my how God works in a person cause I tell you there’s a whole lot sticking nowadays. A feller can spend the whole day with different verses popping up no matter what the situation is at the moment, Glory! I love the Bible and this coming year I won’t miss a beat and just start all over again with the daily reading and also read a few chapters here and there ever single day so the Word becomes a part of my very being!

A Praying Sunday

We had us a bit of a snow storm today in these parts and this evening the wind is howling outside and the temps are plunging. There was no church today and normally I’d really miss it, miss the service and the fellowship, but today was a bit different. Over the past couple of years I’ve been studying Bible College courses and its been awhile since I’ve gotten to them. These are not online courses, but a real Bible College curriculum. In fact they’re equal to one years worth of hands on Bible College and after completing these a person would go to year two in the for real Bible College in Ohio. Needless to say I doubt that would happen with me, I’m kinda planted here where I am, and these courses are good! Today being its Sunday and there was a minor snowstorm in these parts I decided to just watch a DVD with a sermon this morning, the subject was prayer. It blew me away, and I must admit I’d never heard it all put that way before. Then this evening after clearing the snow in the farmyard I came in and ate, then figured I’d watch another DVD on the same subject and again, totally blown away with the subject of prayer.

Now I always prayed but I never really understood the importance of it all. Its the only time we’re directly in communication to the throne of God and in prayer a believer is always swept to the Throne and the prayers are always heard. My Lord, funny how that’s not really taught so much anymore. between the two DVDs we were taken all over the Bible with different verses to guide the way into the subject. From beginning to end, the Bible is full of verses pertaining to this most important subject. These last few years one of my favorite things was to listen to the preaching of Pastor Tommy Bates of Kentucky. I would love the way it was preached in a country style. How he’d talk about the oldtimers of faith out in the countryside and how he’d talk about the powerful prayers they would say. How the would pray it, how they would believe their prayers were heard and were answered and how God would move because of it! And those folks that he’d preach about were most often poor folks that had little in way of material good. Just poor dirt farmers or coal miners, but they had an unshakable faith in God and their precious Saviour Jesus Christ. They’d pray in joy and they’d pray in sorrow. They’d pray in hope of better day coming and they prayed for the day when they’d cross that old River Jordan and be with their Saviour for eternity.

Today I got a pretty good dose of this reality while sitting in the house waiting out the weather. Prayer, I never truly understood the importance of it in such a way as I have today. And to have that faith that our prayers are heard and our prayers are answered puts life in a whole new perspective. To understand what our authority on this earth is that started from almost the very beginning of the Bible and now has been made so much easier because of Jesus Christ. Prayer, that special relationship with God, is so precious. I am humbled today, and excited at the same time. And one thing I know, if I live to be a hundred years old there will never come a time where I’m not learning something, where I’m not growing more in the Lord.

I shudder to think what life would be like without this simple faith in God. The world truly is growing dimmer daily, its importance keeps diminishing. The real reality is growing, more and more, step by step. Our precious Saviour who loves us more than our human minds can even begin to imagine is reaching out His hand in love to us stumbling human beings. And He loves us like no human could ever begin to using human strength.

Monday Night Ponderings

Look at the needless, not to say sinful expenditures in our older cities and districts of country; the unnecessary thousands expended, not in building needful and decent churches, for this is right, but ornamental churches, to make a vain show and gratify pampered pride. Look at the ornamented pulpits, pewed and cushioned seats, organs and almost all kinds of instruments, with salaried chiors, and as proud and graceless as a fallen ghost, while millions upon millions of our fallen race are dying daily and peopling the regions of eternal  woe for the want of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and as scarce as ministers are in some places in our own happy country, yet there are thousands that are ready and willing to go to the utmost verge of this green earth, and carry the glad tidings of mercy to those dying millions, if they had the means of support.Would it not be better comport with the obligations of our holy Christianity to refrain from those superfluous expenditures, and with a liberal hand and devoted heart apply, or furnish the means to carry the glad tidings of salvation to those that sit in the region and shadow of moral death, than to apply them, as is done in many directions in this Christian land? Say, ye professed lovers of Jesus Christ, are not your responsibilities tremendously fearful? There is wealth enough in the churches, and among the friends of different Christian denominations in this happy republic, if rightly husbanded and liberally bestowed, to carry the Bible and a living ministry to every nation on the face of the whole earth. And may we be permitted to hail with Christians rapture the rising glory of this liberal spirit, when we shall see it as the Apocalyptic angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, kindred and tongue! Say, O say! When shall we see this happy day? May the Lord hasten it in His time, and we be co-workers together with Him! Will the Christian world say, Amen?

A little bit from the Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, written almost two hundred years ago. It seems to me like it is written for today as much as back then. I was going through the book just a little while ago to see what I all had marked as I read through it and this part stuck to me and I decided I’d jot this down on the old blog this evening. It does make me ponder, allot, how the money is spent in the churches today. Now there’s about every kind of church a person could imagine around these parts, from rich to poor, but the funny thing is, they might not be what they llok like from the outside, or even the inside of their buildings. There’s some pretty fancy churches around the area and some old time buildings still standing here and the. There’s some brand spanking new expensive works of art buildings, and here and there in the countryside are some much cheaper metal church building that serve the purpose.

But what are all the churches really doing, no matter how they look on the outside, or in the inside for that matter. What is the fruit? Old Peter C had it right down to a tee as he wrote so long ago. All he ever did was spread the Gospel and establish the church where there was none. And as he looked over the “civilized” churches one can tell in the book he was somewhat heartbroken at how the money was being spent on everything except what the church was supposed to be doing. Now this is really food for thought in my opinion! It is incredible how little money it takes to arm licensed preachers to spread the Gospel. But the huge majority of the church monies go elsewhere, doing things that in all reality having nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Bibles and other materials are very cheap. Expenses are very low, but as in his time folks in the wealthy churches pretty much kept the monies for themselves, to impress themselves and their neighbors into thinking they had arrived.

In the near future I’ll write about the condition of these men of God when finishing up a long circuit, how they came in weather beaten, clothes ripped up, barely hanging on. But the soul count was high. The Kingdom was spread! And for almost no cost in comparison to what the average church spends on itself.The more I read and study the clearer the answer becomes. The question was, why did these men literally have an explosion of Christianity for decades and then it fizzled out into just becoming church. Why such huge moves of the Spirit for decades and then becoming nothing more than traditional religion? I always wondered this and the answers are pretty clear reading in the journals of the men that served God with such abandon that nowadays its hard for even a Spirit filled believer to slightly comprehend it! The Holy Sprit would move in those times out in the countryside to put a modern Spirit filled church today to shame. The conversions were sound and men would pick up the Gospel banner and head out to preach almost immediately. And the success rate has never been equaled, never!

When I became a Christian I knew it would be different then the average believer, I knew there was something stirring inside that isn’t seen much in this day and age. I knew I could never play church, I knew I could never get involved with go nowhere church programs and such. I have no respect for modern sound systems, modern ways that are trying to keep up with dead big city churches and thrill the folks with an entertainment event instead of what they had back then, the Holy Ghost sweeping through the congregation and folks couldn’t even get up off the ground! Folks think that they are full of the Spirit after a few songs are played on the loud speakers. But then after the modern day Spirit Filled church service most go back to the normal every day life of following the world and don’t give it a second thought. What ever happened to folks crying out for mercy?

But I know deep down that there will be this true move of God again where thousands can’t even walk because of the power of God falling upon the place and the surrounding countryside. The power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ never changes, only people do.

A Blessed Day

I am happy tonight! This was the first Sunday in many a year that I was able to go hunting. Pheasant hunting to be exact! Of course the pheasant population isn’t really suffering in these parts because of it, never had a shot, but what a good day anyhow! plus church was really good, better than its been for a long time! Just an old fashioned Holy Ghost service in my humble opinion! Great preaching, great music and a good crowd to boot!

You know, a fella needs that every once in a while. The world seems to be trying to eat away at a person and when one can get a Sunday recharge its a blessing without a doubt. Plus the fact that things are being somewhat caught up on the farm sure doesn’t hurt matters none! Now I ain’t been hunting for years and years but today I was convinced to buy a license. I figured if I did everything illegal that it would be an easy way to start prison ministry in our county but others, including my family figured it would be better for me to be legal and all. So I took the plunge and stopped at the gas station on the way home from church and bought a small game license and a pheasant stamp to keep me out of trouble. No longer can I be called the poaching preacher, hmm, did have a ring to it!

But some of us country folk ain’t all that hip on keeping up with all the rules and regulations anyhow. At church they said , (cough), that a role model should at least try and do something legal every once in a while. The conviction musta got to me a little bit cause even as much as it hurt my farmer pride, this kinda got to me and the workings of the church must come first. Besides, it wouldn’t look all that hot in the county newspaper with me getting a stiff fine from the DNR and then try and teach at church. Yup, this is different, shape me, mold me…

Oh Lord, things are going good as far as everything is going. Oh, there’s problems all the time, but a feller just gotta keep on pluggin. Give it to God and have at it. Do His will and don’t look back. As I am reading in my newest book, The Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, I’m marking that book all up. One thing that is interesting to me is what he would preach about. In every case these are the things that stir me. So mark em I will, and study em as much as I can. Get em so they flow! There is no difference in the Word back then and the Word now. It has the same effect, the same results. The Word doesn’t change, only people try and change the meaning of the Word, but in the end always fail.

This will be a very busy week with ministry and other related things. Lots to do in a few different directions and I am excited about all of it. Tonight though I’m just content with the Lord’s Day that we had. very good, a treasure from heaven sent down to earth. I should have known, as easy and smooth as chores went this morning this was a blessed day!